“Make it easy on yourself,” Rutger called out, attempting to smile with his fang-filled mouth. It was a grotesque, horrible thing to look at. “Or don’t. That will be a lot more fun. I haven’t had a proper hunt in ages.”

He glared at them, that smile widening and getting worse.

“I always kill ‘em too quickly.”

“Don’t hog all the fun,” the Russel-look alike, or at least that’s who Lola thought was talking, said. It was still somewhat hard to tell them apart now. That one, she realized, was the only one she didn’t get a name for.

“Shut yer fucking mouth, Reid,” Ray, the hairy one, said.

At the moment, they were all hairy, Lola realized but even so, Ray’s amount of fur far exceeded the others. And, thanks to good ol’ Ray, she had all their names now. Or at least, what they called each other. She suspected some were shortened, nickname versions but it was all she had to go on. If or when they got out of their current mess, she was going to make it a point to sit down with Russel and get his entire family history, no matter how ugly it was. And judging by the four so willing and eager to murder them, she was guessing it wasn’t a family history brimming with rainbows, butterflies, and tons of pleasant memories.

“What do we do?” she asked, taking a cautious step backward so that she was closer to Russel. Looking back at him for a quick second showed her that he was more wolf than man now too. His face had sprouted fur and the ridge of his forehead had protruded out somewhat, along with his nose and mouth. Fangs jutted from his mouth and his muscles looked bigger now. His eyes were blazing with amber light and for a moment, it reminded Lola of when he had given himself over to the wolf 100%. His eyes had burned almost exactly like that before. She was already afraid but seeing that made it surge through her body even more, making her feel weak and shaky for a few ugly seconds.

Russel didn’t take his eyes off his brothers and tracked each one’s movements. He brought his hands up in a guard, both of them with fingers outstretched to show off his wicked, black claws. There was blood at their tips and Lola realized for the first time how painful his transformations probably were. Even though he changed a lot more smoothly than his brothers, it still had to hurt like a bitch.

“I’m going to be honest,” Russel growled through his fanged mouth. “I am not sure. I honestly didn’t expect to see them this quickly. I thought we had a lot more time to prepare.”

“Well, it looks like you aren’t getting that particular wish,” Lola whispered back, her voice so harsh it was like Russel had been whipped.

He understood, of course. She was pissed and had every right to be. Not only had he lied but he had been incredibly stupid in bringing her to yet another place filled with a dangerous amount of monsters wanting to kill her.

There has to be a way out of this, he thought to himself but his brain was too on edge. Too drenched in adrenaline from the upcoming fight for him to think straight. Maybe I can outsmart them somehow. It wouldn’t be that hard really. Rutger and Raylan were absolute morons, even dumber than he mentioned. Both spent almost all their time indulging in baser urges and cared little for anything else. Roland was a bit more cunning, true, and savage. He would be a definite problem. It was Reid that gave him the most worry. Reid knew how to play the game, as Russel liked to call it. He knew exactly how to manipulate not only their brothers, but their father too. He was dangerous and cunning.

“I really hate to dump more pressure on you but time is running out. They’re moving to surround us. If that happens, we are definitely not making it out alive,” Lola said.

Her wide, frightened eyes were tracking several of the brothers who were getting much too close to her for comfort. She kept her blade raised and ready. If they wanted to kill her, by all the gods in heaven, she was going to make them pay for it in blood. She knew she wasn’t going to win, not against a werewolf, but that didn’t mean she was going down without a fight. If she got lucky, she might even put one’s eye out or chop off a body part. They would just regrow it, and probably quickly, but she would die with the satisfaction of knowing she did some damage on the way out. That was something at least.